Bioterrorism Paper
Bioterrorism Paper
William Bradshaw
Capella University
Bioterrorism Paper Many of the weapons that terrorists use are terrifying but none seem to me to be as terrorizing as biological weapons. Biological weapons are much harder to detect and protect against than ordinary terrorist attacks. Anthrax is a biological weapon that makes people so sick that it can kill them within a short amount of time if they do not get proper medical treatment in time. The fact that anyone would want to deliberately infect other individuals with deadly virus or diseases is entirely disgusting and sick. The first line of defense against biological weapons like anthrax is to be able to detect it. If it is not detected soon enough there could be a major epidemic to deal with that could infect and kill thousands or even millions of people. Whenever one is facing a serious potential crisis planning seems to be the most effective deterrent to either prevent the crisis from happening or at least to limit its impact if it could not be prevented. Detection and prevention all depends on having good intelligence on our side to be able to combat this form of terrorism. Good intelligence will be able to provide the information we need to combat this form of terrorism. According to the article Confronting Biological Threats to the Homeland by Michael Chertoff, “By fusing the clinical data, the regular intelligence information, and ultimately the BioWatch data, including next generation sensors, we can ensure that decision makers have an early, immediate, and comprehensive picture of the kind of pathogens that are out there so they can characterize them (Chertoff, M., 2008)”. Awareness through good intelligence and planning will enable our country to keep up with biological attacks with a higher degree of prevention. Part of this awareness and prevention would involve keeping surveillance on key terrorist targets and places that could possibly manufacture the
William Bradshaw
Capella University
Bioterrorism Paper Many of the weapons that terrorists use are terrifying but none seem to me to be as terrorizing as biological weapons. Biological weapons are much harder to detect and protect against than ordinary terrorist attacks. Anthrax is a biological weapon that makes people so sick that it can kill them within a short amount of time if they do not get proper medical treatment in time. The fact that anyone would want to deliberately infect other individuals with deadly virus or diseases is entirely disgusting and sick. The first line of defense against biological weapons like anthrax is to be able to detect it. If it is not detected soon enough there could be a major epidemic to deal with that could infect and kill thousands or even millions of people. Whenever one is facing a serious potential crisis planning seems to be the most effective deterrent to either prevent the crisis from happening or at least to limit its impact if it could not be prevented. Detection and prevention all depends on having good intelligence on our side to be able to combat this form of terrorism. Good intelligence will be able to provide the information we need to combat this form of terrorism. According to the article Confronting Biological Threats to the Homeland by Michael Chertoff, “By fusing the clinical data, the regular intelligence information, and ultimately the BioWatch data, including next generation sensors, we can ensure that decision makers have an early, immediate, and comprehensive picture of the kind of pathogens that are out there so they can characterize them (Chertoff, M., 2008)”. Awareness through good intelligence and planning will enable our country to keep up with biological attacks with a higher degree of prevention. Part of this awareness and prevention would involve keeping surveillance on key terrorist targets and places that could possibly manufacture the